Maryland's secret education spending spree

The Baltimore Sun:

Unreported spending further bloats an already excessive schools budget

January 18, 2011|By Marta H. Mossburg

Maryland spends on public education like a Saudi prince in Tiffany's.

According to an analysis of data from the Annual Survey of State Government Finances from the U.S. Census Bureau, all education spending accounted for 47 percent of Maryland's total revenue in 2009, the most recent year available. Health spending, which is always cited as the monster in the state budget, ate 9 percent of total revenue in 2009. By comparison, public education represented 26 percent of total revenue in 2000.

The results are sparkly — on paper. Maryland earned the top spot for the third year in a row in Education Week's survey of the nation's K-12 public schools last week. But for the wealthiest state in the nation, home to some of the most highly educated parents, it would be surprising if it did not score high. And few know how much that ranking costs at a time when the state faces a $1.6 billion budget gap and legislators are debating whether to raise taxes yet again in a state with one of the largest tax burdens in the nation...

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